Suspended sentence for farmer who opposes trucking law

Friday, February 12, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Dryden-area farmer David Rhyner was given a suspended sentence in Provincial Offences Court today after being found guilty of not having the mandatory safety inspection on his stock trailer.

He entered a plea of not guilty during the trial in Fort Frances before Justice of the Peace M. Donio. Rhyner represented himself during the trial.

As part of the judgment, Rhyner doesn’t have to pay the $240 ticket he got at a Ministry of Transportation check stop near Fort Frances in September, 2009. He was hauling 20 of his neighbour’s feeder cattle at the time.

Rhyner is discouraged there isn’t a resolution to the rule that allows him to use his farm-plated vehicles to haul commodities for other farmers for commission only during September, October and November. Farmers can transport commodities for other growers during the other months but they can’t charge them a commission.

“We have no way to get our crop to market,” says Rhyner, who adds he’s tired and is thinking of quitting farming unless the general farm organizations help lobby for a change in the rule.

Rhyner says most of the farmers in his area are small producers with 20 to 50 cows and can’t afford their own truck and trailer to haul animals once a year to the closest market, Winnipeg, a four-hour drive away. In addition, the animals aren’t ready for market in the three months the Transportation Ministry says he can haul for commission. Area farmers calve their cows in the summer and they’re ready for market the following spring.

“I’m not trying to make money off a farm-plated vehicle, I’m trying to get animals to market,” he says. “There is no way we can get a commercial vehicle in here to haul four or five animals down to the local butcher shop.”

Rhyner says if he switches to commercial plates he’d lose the discount he gets on farm plates, plus the GST rebate. It would cost him even more than it does now to put his truck on the road.  BF